Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Friedersdorf: When "Diversity" and "Inclusion" Are Tenure Requirements

I usually agree with CF about this sort of thing. But I very much disagree here. This stuff is, in fact, insane IMO, and I expect the reasons are obvious, so I'm not going to rant about them. Friedersdorf focuses on the fact that three students have different ideas about what would count as acting in accordance with this insane policy...but I think that's to miss the point. There are good policies people might disagree about when they try to specify what counts as acting in accordance with them (e.g.: no reckless driving). And the policy in question would be bad no matter how much agreement there might be about it. Best to go after the real flaw, says me.
It's reasonable to have policies against professors acting in blatantly bigoted ways in class. That is, as we already agree, there's a baseline of civility and reasonability that professors must meet. But the policy Friedersdorf discusses is just nuts. It constitutes academia taking yet another step toward soft totalitarianism.
Seriously. Everyone really ought to be alarmed as hell about this craziness.